Twin Cities fast food cravings leave three dead Sunday

If United's announcement last week that fatties have to pay double to ride their planes wasn't enough to make you skip out on a grease-ball meal this weekend, maybe this weekend's crazy fast food violence will be enough to curb your appetite. No one really wants a side of gun fire with their sliders, do they?

In two separate instances this weekend, three people are dead in shootings at fast food establishments in the Twin Cities. One of the incidents might have led to retaliation violence Sunday night.

Food delivery sounds really appealing right about now.

Early Sunday morning, a man was shot to death outside a Hopkins White Castle following a fight. The 24-year-old male was shot at about 2 a.m. and died at the scene, according to WCCO. Witnesses saw him arguing with others before the shooting occurred and saw two males flee the scene.

Later Sunday night, police officers were on the scene of a south Minneapolis shooting where officers shot at a suspect as he fled the scene. A local Somali community activist says they believe it was related to the White Castle shooting that morning, says the Star Tribune.

Sunday afternoon, a domestic dispute at a Maple Grove McDonald's ended in a murder-suicide death of two people. A young on-again, off-again couple met outside the restaurant to break off a year-long relationship when the man shot his ex-girlfriend to death, according to the Star Tribune.

At least a dozen people, including children, were eating inside the popular restaurant when the man accosted the woman as she walked toward the entrance, shooting her at least twice with a shotgun.

Just before 2 p.m., Maple Grove police received several frantic 911 calls about a woman being shot in the parking lot of the McDonald's on Sycamore Lane N. Witnesses saw her stumble at the curb and fall onto a sidewalk by the restaurant as she was shot the first time, said Maple Grove police Capt. Tracy Stille. The male suspect then approached the woman and shot her again at "very close range," Stille said.

The man then fled in a white vehicle. "Witnesses in the restaurant were yelling, 'Grab the license plate! Grab the license plate!' " he said.

The woman's death was the first homicide in Maple Grove in eight years. A McDonald's employee performed CPR on the woman, but she died at the scene.

When a Brooklyn Park police officer eventually pulled over the man based on a vehicle description and a partial license plate number, the man was found dead inside the vehicle from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The identities of the two haven't been released, but they are described as metro-area residents in their 20s.